Easy to Make "Brick Window" Chalkboard

by Susan Myers

Easy

Created from Foam Project Bricks and a old wooden calendar, this cute “brick” window message board is a perfect conversation piece for your kitchen or office decor!

These are little styrofoam bricks that at pre-painted and ready to go! Since I do not currently have any young kids in the house that need school projects completed, I wanted to come up with something that an adult could use. So a faux brick window message board was the way to go!

I found this wooden perpetual calendar at a thrift store several years ago and have had it stored in my closet ever since. I knew when I paid the $2.32 for it that one day I might have a use for it.

Remember these calendars? They were all the rage back in the early ’80’s! This one was missing all the date pieces and the month pieces were all awkwardly hand painted including a massive miss-spelling of the word “December”.

I began be totally dis-assembling the calendar. This is a great stress buster by the way. Just grab a claw hammer and go to it! After a bit of work, I had removed all the extra pieces and just had the wooden base left over.

I then flipped the calendar over. I planned to use the back, since the front had too many holes. The back was a clean slate!

The next step is to turn this wooden calendar into a chalk board! Ever work with chalk board paint? This was my first time and I have to tell you it is easy! Simply paint the chalk board paint on in one direction. Allow to dry for one hour and then paint it on in the opposite direction. Finally, allow it to dry for 24 hours before going any further.

There are tons of little bricks in this box of Make It: Fun® Project Bricks. I was surprised that we used barely half the box for this project! They go a long way!

Start by creating a brick border around the perimeter of the wood, gluing the styrofoam bricks on with low temp hot glue. (Be sure to use low temp hot glue as the high temp will dissolve your styrofoam!) Go the whole perimeter- all the way around.

Next, lay the bricks on their side as shown above and glue down along the sides of the wood on both sides just to the point where the curve starts. Turn them sideways and glue along the curve of the top. You will have spaces with the curve, but it gives it character!

Add a row of bricks to the bottom of the window forming a “sill”, gluing the short edge of the brick to the wood. Add a final row of bricks to the bottom edge, turned sideways as shown above. The final touch in brickwork is to add the row of four bricks to the top a shown in the photo below.

The next step is to add the wood window panes. Cut your balsa wood to fit using a craft knife. It is a good idea to paint it white first so that you don’t get paint all over the chalk board.

I cut the two horizontal pieces first and glued them down using a ruler to keep the level, then cut a long piece for the vertical center, gluing it down over top of the horizontal pieces.

Cut two more smaller pieces for the arch of the window, placing the ends underneath where the horizontal and vertical wood pieces met.

Next, we need to season the chalk board. Lay a piece of chalk on the side and chalk the areas of the board that you will be using. Then wipe them clean with a paper towel.

Final touches! Use white acrylic paint to paint the window sill and sides of the window. Glue a tiny pot onto the window sill, tuck a styrofoam ball inside and push in some fake flowers.